Distorted Tales: Blood and Scales
by xxPyRaxx
Summary: A twisted horrific alternate ending to the famous The Little Mermaid by Christian Hans Andersen.


**Blood & Scales**

A Twisted Alternate Ending to the Little Mermaid

By Gennipher Ella Patterson

The young fifteen year old girl stood silently in the darkened room, hiding amongst the shadows. She watched in jealousy as the dark haired Prince slept soundlessly next to his new bride. Their chest rose and fell in perfect harmony and it sickened her.

The young girl slowly made her way out of the shadows and towards the opposite side of the bed; the side where the Prince's bride was sleeping. With each step she took towards the young woman asleep in the bed, she felt the agony of countless knives stabbing and twisting up her enchanted legs. She was used to the pain of having her human legs, she didn't wince anymore. Her eyes grew to slits when she saw the woman heave a large sigh as she shifted in her sleep so she lay facing her.

His bride did look pretty under the elegant fabric of the bed sheets and her hair sprawled out around her head like a crown. Her mouth was slightly open to breath; just enough for the smallest of air particles to slip through her lips. The fifteen year old couldn't help but feel rage only a tsunami and a rough hurricane could muster. She hated the girl in the bed. She hated her with her whole immortal being.

The Prince didn't know it but his bride who was a fraud and was living a lie. His bride took what was supposed to be _her_ fame.

_Her_ glory.

_Her _beloved.

It was his bride's fault that she was in this situation. If his bride just stayed in the temple with the rest of the other girls, than it would be her in this bed and not standing beside it. It wasn't fair. She had done all the work, all the saving and it was his phony bride that received all the credit and his love. It wasn't fair. Her grip tightened at the object in her hand; the dagger she received from her sisters.

The young girl placed her free hand over the bride's mouth to keep her from making any noise to disrupt the Prince's slumber. Her touch must have been too heavy for the bride's eyes snapped open wide and the young girl felt the bride suck in a gasp of both surprise and horror. Before the bride to move or call out to wake her husband from his sleep, the fifteen year old swiped the blade of the dagger across the bride's through the soft and tender flesh of bride's youthful neck. The bride's back arched up and gave a few weak kicks under the covers as she choked on her own blood. As the blood seeped out of the long wound, so did her energy. Both of her choking and kicking stopped and she laid still with her eyes still wide open.

The young girl tightened her grip on the now dead woman's mouth for a brief moment to make sure that the dead bride wouldn't make a single peep as her attention went across the bed to wear the Prince was. The young husband didn't awake, he was still oblivious to what happened to his new wife. When the young fifteen year old finally had to nerve and courage to remove her hand, she saw from the light of the moon that her fingers and palm were covered with crimson liquid rubies.

She wasn't fazed by the blood dripping from her hand and sliding down her wrist; coating her hand like a red glove. She didn't feel anything but anger in her veins for the dead newlywed; she deserved to die for her sin. A wicked grin spread on her lips as a macabre thought crossed her mind. She turned away from the fingers in the bed to face the nearest wall on the dead bride's side. She raised her bloodied hand and wrote the one word that she described her beloved's now murdered wife.

As she glided her fingers across the smooth surface of the wall and leaving a blood trail in her fingers' wake, she never noticed that the Prince had moved and suddenly awoken when he felt the smooth semi-cool liquid on the bed sheets. In her anger, she never heard his soft gasp in surprise at the texture of the blood or the creaking of the spring mattress when he sat up. Only when she saw that the once dark room was light by a dim light, did she turn back around to face the bed.

An even louder gasp escaped the Prince's lips at the sight of her dead wife and the amount of blood around her limp form. His eyes then moved from his dead partner to the girl at the wall.

"Little Foundling?" he whispered in both shock and surprise, "What are you doing?"

The young girl didn't answer. She couldn't answer, since the Sea Witch took her tongue as payment for her ability to have human legs.

"What is that on your hand? Is that-is that _blood_?" he gasped as he quickly climbed out of bed to make his way over to her.

Suddenly, his feet slipped on some thin liquid and he fell onto his hip. From the dim light of the lamp by the bed, he saw red footprints trail from one corner of the room to where his little foundling was standing. Realization dawned on the Prince; the blood was coming from her feet. The Prince looked up at the young girl with confusion; was she injured too? Did she get the injury from the same person who killed his beautiful wife?

The Prince got up off the floor and took a step towards the injured girl. The young girl took a step away from him. The Prince tried to coax her to stop backing away from him like she was a wounded and frightened animal. She wasn't though. She just didn't want to do something she wouldn't regret just yet, she wanted him to understand why first. The light from the lamp caught the metal dagger, causing a bright light of reflection. The Prince caught sight of the dagger with the bloodied blade and he gasped as everything clicked.

"It was you?" he voiced, betrayal clearly in his tone.

The girl nodded her head strongly.

"Why?" the Prince demanded.

The girl pointed to the dead woman in the bed before pointing to the word she spelt on the wall with blood: DECEIVER.

"Deceiver? I don't understand".

To answer his question, she swept the still fresh blood from the newlywed with her fingers and spelt another word: RESCUE. When the Prince didn't understand, with motions towards herself and himself, he understood what she was saying.

It was her that rescued him, not his bride. The Prince tried to argue that it was his bride that pulled him from the water but the young girl wrote two more words: NOT WET and then pointed to the dead woman. The Prince vocalized multiple solutions as to why his bride was dry but the young girl wouldn't have it. She insisted that it was her that brought him ashore not his _wif_e.

Throughout the rest of the early hours, she explained what happened and why she can't speak though gestures and words written in blood on his walls. Everything fell into place as she explained everything she went through and did. He finally believed her and she was the one he had fallen in love with. The Prince did his best to try to convince her that he will marry her now but the girl shook her head strongly. It was too late for him to declare his love for her and she was too angry to accept his affection that she had fought so hard to catch.

She knew what she had to do, the task she was given by the Sea Witch would transform her hideous legs to her beautiful scale fish tail, just by his blood dripping on her soft flesh. The girl looked directly in his dark eyes and raised her dagger until the tip of the blade was hovering adjacent to his heart. The Prince knew instantly what she wanted to do; to kill him.

The Prince fought to get the dagger out of her grasp but it was hard to get a hold of it since she kept swiped and stabbed in his general direction whenever he got close enough. The Prince easily dodged away from the offending object but a few times he wasn't fast enough. Blood leaked from his wounds, causing him to slow his movements. The girl took his weakness as the opportunity to stab the blade in his heart and she succeeded. She didn't look in his face as he crumbled to the ground. Instead, her attention fell to her human legs were his blood dripped. Her legs grew fish scales; her tail had returned.

The wicked grin that was once on her face faded and was replaced with a joyful smile. She watched with a sparkle of happiness in her eyes as her once smooth flesh change into her beautiful dry scales. She fell onto her buttocks with a glorious laugh when she lost her balance but she didn't seem to mind since she was occupied with running her hands up and down her fully transformed fish tail. Happiness quickly replaced the hurt and anger she once felt flow through her veins. She was so happy that she slapped the end of her tail against the floor in glee. Now, she could return to the sea where her family was waiting for her.

**The end.**


End file.
